In a separate drill earlier, Russian fighter jets were mobilised to intercept and destroy an “enemy violator”.

Long-range MiG-31 supersonic aircraft from the Pacific Fleet were deployed to head off a mock intruder of Russian airspace in drills on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The Soviet-era interceptor attack aircraft located the “enemy” target before destroying it with missiles in the “designated area”, according to Russia’s Pacific Fleet.

"Air fighters of the separate mixed naval aviation regiment of the Pacific Fleet trained to intercept a ‘violator’ of the airspace in difficult weather conditions in Kamchatka," Nikolai Voskresensky, a spokesman for Fleet, said.

As part of the training mission, an MiG-31 high-altitude interceptor had to infiltrate the country’s airspace to conduct air reconnaissance and imitate strikes on military bases in Kamchatka.

The dramatic drill comes as Ukraine and Russia remain at loggerheads over a shipping incident in the Black Sea off Crimea at the end of November.

Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko fears a “full-scale war” with Russia is possible after the “extraordinary event” in the Black Sea.

He said, because Russian military activity and tank deployments have “dramatically increased” along Ukraine’s borders, the armed forces have been ramping up preparations “in case of a large-scale ground invasion”.